Octothorpe

John, Alison and Liz dissect this year’s Hugo Awards finalists!

An uncorrected transcript of this episode is available here. Please email your letters of comment to [email protected], join our Facebook group, and tag @OctothorpeCast (on Bluesky or on Mastodon) when you post about the show on social media.

Content warnings this episode: None

Hugo Awards

Best Novel

A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett

Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor

Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky

The Everlasting by Alix E Harrow

The Incandescent by Emily Tesh

The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson

Best Novella

Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz

Cinder House by Freya Marske

Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite

The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar

The Summer War by Naomi Novik

What Stalks the Deep by T Kingfisher

Best Novelette

“Kaiju Agonistes” by Scott Lynch

“Never Eaten Vegetables” by H H Pak

“Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy” by Martha Wells

“The Girl That My Mother Is Leaving Me For” by Cameron Reed

“The Millay Illusion” by Sarah Pinsker

“When He Calls Your Name” by Catherynne M Valente

Best Short Story

“10 Visions of the Future; or, Self-Care for the End of Days” by Samantha Mills

“In My Country” by Thomas Ha

“Laser Eyes Ain’t Everything” by Effie Seiberg

“Missing Helen” by Tia Tashiro

“Six People to Revise You” by J R Dawson

“Wire Mother” by Isabel J Kim

Best Series

Emily Wilde by Heather Fawcett

October Daye by Seanan McGuire

Old Man’s War by John Scalzi

The Chronicles of Osreth by Katherine Addison

The Craft Wars by Max Gladstone

White Space by Elizabeth Bear

Best Graphic Story or Comic

Absolute Wonder Woman Vol. 1: The Last Amazon

A Girl and Her Fed

A Wizard of Earthsea: A Graphic Novel

The Invisible Parade

The Power Fantasy Volume 1: The Superpowers

The Space Cat

Best Related Work

Colourfields: Writing About Writing About Science Fiction by Paul Kincaid

Inventing the Renaissance: The Myth of a Golden Age by Ada Palmer

Last War in Albion: “The Cuddled Little Vice (Sandman)” by Elizabeth Sandifer

Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia E Butler by Susana M Morris

History of Westeros: “Ragnarök vs the Long Night”

The Hugo Spreadsheet of Doom, maintained by Renay

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form

Andor (season 2)

Frankenstein

KPop Demon Hunters

Mickey 17

Sinners

Superman

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form

Doctor Who: “The Story & the Engine”

Murderbot: “All Systems Red”

Murderbot: “The Perimeter”

Pluribus: “We Is Us”

Severance: “Cold Harbor”

The Wheel of Time: “The Road to the Spear”

Best Game or Interactive Work

Blue Prince

Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector

“Tabletop roleplaying in the world of Citizen Sleeper 2!” on Quinns Quest

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

Dispatch

Hades II

Hollow Knight: Silksong

Best Editor Short Form

Scott H Andrews

Jennifer Brozek

Neil Clarke

Lee Harris

Michael Damian Thomas

Sheila Williams

Best Editor Long Form

Carl Engle-Laird

Jaymee Goh

Lee Harris

Jenni Hill

Joe Monti

Diana M Pho

Best Professional Artist

Lulu Chen

Kelly Chong

Dave Kellett

Tran Nguyen

John Picacio

Tom Roberts

Best Semiprozine

Escape Pod

khōréō magazine

On Spec: The Canadian Magazine of the Fantastic

Strange Horizons

The Deadlands

Uncanny Magazine

Best Fanzine

Ancillary Review of Books

An Unofficial Hugo Book Club Blog

Galactic Journey

Intergalactic Mixtape

Journey Planet

nerds of a feather, flock together

Best Fancast

A Meal of Thorns

Eating the Fantastic

Hugo, Girl!

Octothorpe

The Coode Street Podcast

Worldbuilding for Masochists

Best Fan Writer

Jay Brantner for “Tar Vol”

Alex Brown

James Davis Nicoll

Roseanna Pendlebury

Jason Sanford

Örjan Westin

Best Fan Artist

Terri Ash

Geneva Bowers

Sara Felix

Richard Man

España Sheriff

Yuumei

Best Poem

“Care for Lightning” by Mari Ness

“Hex Supply Customer Support Log” by Elis Montgomery

“How to Become a Sea Witch” by Theodora Goss

“Landing: Seattle” by Brandon O’Brien

“The Mourning Robot” by Angela Liu

“The World to Come” by Jennifer Hudak

Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book

Among Ghosts by Rachel Hartman

Coffeeshop in an Alternate Universe by C B Lee

Holy Terrors by Margaret Owen

Oathbound by Tracy Deonn

Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins

They Bloom at Night by Trang Thanh Tran

Astounding Award for Best New Writer

Sophie Burnham

Kamilah Cole

Antonia Hodgson

Molly O’Neill

H H Pak

Jared Pechaček

Credits

Cover art: “Vibrant Award Culture” by Alison Scott

Alt text: A cartoon. John, Alison and Liz are wearing Octothorpe T-shirts and matching purple baseball caps while standing behind a market stall clad in a very slightly different purple and with various delicacies upon it. The sign above the stall reads “Octothorpe 158 Hugo HOT takes”, with “HOT” in a little tiny fire. The sign below the stall reads “Always half-baked! Fresh off the griddle! Three-pack special!”

Theme music: “Fanfare for Space” by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0)

John is gaming, Alison is a pirate, and Claudia is dancing.

An uncorrected transcript of this episode is available here. Please email your letters of comment to [email protected], join our Facebook group, and tag @OctothorpeCast (on X or on Mastodon or on Bluesky) when you post about the show on social media.

Content warnings this episode: It’s a live recording! Also, we say the words “dicks” and “moist” a lot; sorry about that.

Claudia Rapp:

Website

Bluesky

Facebook

Instagram

The Hay lecturer was Tasha Phillips, and the lecture was “Stranger than Fiction: Creatures of the Deep”

John was wrong about that sketch, it was on the radio and is also on YouTube

Eurocon 2026: Metropol Con 2026 in Berlin, Germany

Gamma Rats

Die Leere im Kern deiner Hoffnung

Worldcon 2028: Bid for Nuremberg, Germany

Worldcon 2028: Bid for Brisbane, Australia

Picks

John: World on a Wire/Welt am Dracht

Alison: The Eastercon Business Meeting

Claudia: Lyneham by Nils Westerboer

Athos 2643 by Nils Westerboer

A movie is underway!

Credits

Cover art: “Best panel confirmed” by Simon Bubb

Alt text: A picture of John, Alison and Claudia sitting behind the panel tables during the live recording. A thread from the convention Discord is being projected onto the screen behind them, with messages reading “Malcolm H: Song for Alison… Da Da Da”, “Roseanna: We’ve passed the discord comment count for the highest other item!! Best panel confirmed [rocket emoji]”, “Meg MacDonald: Teach us your wisdom”, “Frances Dowd: Drink drink drink your Heineken, oodles and oodles for everyone!”. Words have been added to the top reading “Octothorpe 157” and to the bottom reading ‘Live from Iridescence: “Best panel confirmed”’.

Theme music: “Fanfare for Space” by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0)

John has a headache, Alison has a cold, and Liz is fine, thanks for asking.

An uncorrected transcript of this episode is available here. Please email your letters of comment to [email protected], join our Facebook group, and tag @OctothorpeCast (on Bluesky or on Mastodon) when you post about the show on social media.

Content warnings this episode: None

Letters of comment

Liz said “RoboCup world championship” not “RoboCop world championship”

RoboCup Germany

RoboCup Federation

RoboCup on Wikipedia

Alexandra Lanes (Bluesky)

Ali Baker Brooks (Facebook)

Ang Rosin (Facebook)

Ed Morland (Bluesky)

Farah Mendlesohn (Facebook)

Fredrik V Coulter (Facebook)

Juan Sanmiguel (email)

Kin-Ming Looi (Facebook)

Neil Ottenstein (Facebook)

Paul Weimer (Bluesky, email)

Phil Dyson (Facebook)

Renay (email)

Hugo Award Recommendations!

We also heard from Alex Holden, Finbarr O’Reilly, Kev McVeigh, Roseanna Pendlebury, Shi Lala

GUFF result

Farah’s Facebook group: From Perth to Perth!

Nebula Awards

The Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association

This year’s nominees

“How SFWA Is Administering the Nebula Awards Policy Against LLM-Use” on File 770

“Indie Game Awards rescinds Clair Obscur’s GOTY wins over use of generative AI” on Polygon

G Willow Wilson’s thoughts on the Best Comic category

Locus

2026 fundraiser

Eastercon 2026: Iridescence

The program is out

You can find John here and Alison here and Liz here

“Falsehoods Programmers Believe About Names – With Examples”

Picks

John: Vantage

Alison: Slay the Spire 2

Liz: Formula 1: Drive to Survive

Credits

Cover art: “Eastercon Planning” by Alison Scott

Alt text: A black-and-white cartoon. John is behind a stack of games, saying “Games Room”; Alison is behind a stack of printers and paper, saying “Newsletter”; Liz is on a beach reading with sunglasses and a cocktail. In purple, the words “Octothorpe 156 Eastercon Planning:” appear at the top and “questioning our life choices” at the bottom.

Theme music: “Fanfare for Space” by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0)

John is a bit rum, Alison is taking a drink, and Liz is buying beer.

An uncorrected transcript of this episode is available here. Please email your letters of comment to [email protected], join our Facebook group, and tag @OctothorpeCast (on Bluesky or on Mastodon) when you post about the show on social media.

Content warnings this episode:

Letters of comment

Abigail Nussbaum (email)

Neon Hemlock

Brian Nisbet (Facebook)

Chris Garcia (email)

Ed Morland (Bluesky)

Elias Helfer (email)

Roseanna Pendlebury on fan writer

Florian Bailey (email)

Nuremberg in 2028

Paul Weimer (email)

Down Under Fan Fund (DUFF)

Going Under Fan Fund (GUFF)

Transatlantic Fan Fund (TAFF)

European Fan Fund (EFF)

Scott Edelman (email)

Eating the Fantastic

Chicken Shop Date

Tammy Coxon (Bluesky: convention sports, deduplications, staff rates)

Trish E Matson (email)

The Skiffy and Fanty Show

We also heard from DC, Farah Mendlesohn, Jonathan Baddeley, Kev McVeigh, Mike Scott, and Neil Ottenstein

British Science Fiction Association

BSFA members and Eastercon members can now vote on the shortlist

Nicholas Whyte writes on this topic

The Incompleat Register

Eastercon 2026: Iridescence in Birmingham

Lucky for None

Lucky for None in Space

Eastercon 2028: Bid for Birmingham by Marcus Streets

Picks

John: Alien and Aliens

they’re small indie movies you probably haven’t heard of them

Alison: Small Prophets

Liz: Dark Winds

Credits

“Homunculeeses” by Alison Scott
Alt text: Three homunculi in jars with cork toppers who look reminiscent of John, Alison and Liz. Alison’s has a little stick with a moose head on it and a cup of coffee. The jars are on a shelf. The words “Octothorpe 155” appear at the top and “Small Podcasters” at the bottom.



Theme music: “Fanfare for Space” by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0)

John is nominating board games, Alison should read more, and Liz bought two memberships.

An uncorrected transcript of this episode is available here. Please email your letters of comment to [email protected], join our Facebook group, and tag @OctothorpeCast (on Bluesky or on Mastodon) when you post about the show on social media.

Content warnings this episode: None

Letters of comment

Andrew Hogg (Discord)

Chris Garcia (email)

Ivan Sinha (Facebook)

Kev McVeigh (Facebook)

Phil Dyson (Facebook)

Esther MacCallum-Stewart (Facebook)

Jonny Harden (Mastodon)

Paul Weimer (email)

We also heard from Brian Nisbet, Bridget Bradshaw, Els, Farah Mendlesohn, Kin-Ming Looi

Worldcon 2026: LAcon V in Los Angeles, USA

Staff memberships are $100

Hugo nominations are open

Hugo Spreadsheet of Doom

We’re not recusing this year!

Best Novel:

On the Calculation of Volume I by Solvej Balle, translated by Barbara J Haveland

A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett

Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino

Every Version of You by Grace Chan

The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones

The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami

Slow Gods by Claire North

Luminous by Silvia Park

There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm

We believe this is eligible because (a) the version published in 2025 is different to the previously self-published version and (b) there is precedent through Old Man’s War by John Scalzi

When There Are Wolves Again by EJ Swift

The Incandescent by Emily Tesh

The Singing Hill Cycle by Nghi Vo

The Salt Oracle by Lorraine Wilson

Best Game/Interactive Work:

Newfangled electric games:

Blue Prince

Hades II

Good old-fashioned games:

The Fellowship of the Ring: Trick-Taking Game

Galactic Cruise

The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship

The Old King’s Crown

Star Trek: Captain’s Chair

Star Wars: Battle of Hoth

Take Time

Vantage

Niall Harrison’s list of Best Translated Novels

Fan funds

Eurocon 2026: Metropol Con Berlin

Natcon/Swancon 2026: Swancon 50 in Perth, Australia

The TAFF candidates are Lisa Hertel and Kat Templeton, to Metropol Con

The GUFF candidates are Farah Mendlesohn and Misha Sumra, to Swancon 50

EFF nominations close on 15 March, to Metropol Con

Picks

John: Murderbot

Alison: The UFO 50 soundtrack

VVVVVV

Liz: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

Credits

Cover art: “Alison forgot she had to do the cover” by Alison Scott

Alt text: Text reading “OCTOTHORPE 154* *See, it’s like this. This is the first day of 2026 that hasn’t been cold, or wet, or both, so instead of doing the Octothorpe cover I went for a nice walk. And bought no board games, but a jigsaw. And did the jigsaw. Sorry.” The text is on top of a photograph of a bridge and some trees underneath a blue sky.

Theme music: “Fanfare for Space” by Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0)